What Could or Should Replace Existing Monetary Arrangements?

In this chapter, three main approaches to creating a new, more stable monetary system, which is under wide discussion today, are considered in turn. First, the feasibility of reviving the use of gold as backing for currencies is a never-ending controversy, kept very much alive by those who argue that “In a crisis, there is nothing else.” Second, the rapidly growing use of the internet for decentralised finance or “DeFi” services is offering the public a growing range of new, reliable, low-cost financial services. Among these is the use of “crypto-currencies,” which are growing rapidly but which still suffer severe instability and uncertainty. Third, the world's central banks are developing their own internet-based currencies, known as central bank digital currencies (CBDC). However, these are unlike private crypto-currencies since their use would give government control over all transactions – a degree of power which would risk enabling tyranny.